Couples that train together?

[phgsd]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

I told my husband to stay home when we did the BH, I didn't want to worry about him. I had enough to worry about!
And many dogs will see(or just scent) their "special roommate" in the crowd on trial day and get really distracted...because the roomie is never there during training. If you want support at trial time, better have it now and then during training so it is not a big deal to your dog.

I had that issue with Kessy, on both her Schh1 and OB2 she got up on her long down, it lost us 10 points each time. She was looking for my husband. We agreed he might have to stay home for her schutzhund trials, but I haven't trialed her again in Schh...

[RowdyDogs]

I think it depends so much on the people involved.

I am a professional horse trainer, and I have a general rule of not dating horse people. I've dated another pro and that was a fine relationship based on mutual respect (ended because he really wanted kids and I really didn't at that time, but a great relationship and mutually beneficial when it came to horse training), but I've also dated guys who want to learn to ride, or (the worst) who think they know what they're doing because they grew up doing it and so are experts in their own minds. I have literally ended relationships because of training-related conflict. Note the plural there, too.

But total novice isn't great either. It's hard to teach someone you're in an intimate relationship with about training, at least from a professional standpoint. As a trainer, when I tell someone to do something, I expect them to either do it, or present a convincing argument about why it isn't appropriate. But often in an intimate relationship, you get the sass without the knowledge...your partner just subconsciously assumes you're equals there because you're equals in the relationship, if that makes sense (and I don't mean that in an offensive way, just obviously when it comes to training there are experience and knowledge differences). And I'm not alone in that...I've literally been hired to tell spouses something that my client has told them a million times, but somehow hearing it from someone who is a professional (as if that means anything in either horse or dog training--anyone can hang out a shingle, it just means you're being paid) makes it meaningful. It is stupid, but we all have our blind spots.

I'm seeing a real future with my current BF (we're living together and talking about a future, so not crazy LOL), and a large part is his attitude to animals. He had 2 cats when we met, but loved horses and dogs too. He'd just never had them as an adult, and admits that. He supports me--he's at every competition I'm in, he goes to animal-related volunteer events, if I ask to help me with a training exercise (which happens pretty much daily) he's there...he clearly loves the animals too. I have to watch him because otherwise he spoils them too much!

So for me, that is perfect. We don't argue (well, not about the animals anyway...), we respect each other, and the biggest annoyance I have with him is impressing on him the difference between "off" and "down!" But also my best friend is happily married for 9 years now, 2 kids, and both are professional trainers who don't always see eye-to-eye...

So yeah, I guess I could have just ended this a lot earlier with my initial sentence. It depends on the people involved.

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

What I see at training, most teams are women dominated. Seldom are there more guys than women training in a club.
And those guys are recruited to be helper/decoys!
Just like the horse world, it seems women are more into competing. Maybe because there are no engines to tune or blame? LOL
My DH has no interest in dog sport, he enjoys listening to me talk about our training days, or progress and understands whats going on, but to handle his own dog and compete...no. He's into fuel powered sports/runs a machine shop for race cars.

It is weird, because in Germany it's a mens world.

[ohdev]

Boyfriend and I both enjoy dogs, but differently. He's a good helper with things like potty training and simple things, but when it comes to setting rules and being strict with the dogs, he's a total sucker for their puppy eyes We got our lab when we lived together at college, he did a good portion of the potty training since I was in class a lot during the day and he was finishing his degree, but I did all of his formal obedience on my own. Now that we live separately back home, his formal training has slown to a halt and he's just a house pet, which is what my boyfriend and his family are happy with I suppose.

However, I think he gets a bit jealous when he sees all the cool things I do with Dean for training. He's everything the lab isn't, which is exactly what I wanted when looking for a dog really I try to get him engaged in whatever we're doing, but he gets frustrated with training since he's not used to it. I'm hoping that once I start taking Dean to herding lessons, or when I add another dog to our pack, he'll show a bit more enthusiasm and want to do more fun dog-related things with me.

If all else fails, at least I have a dependable pooper-scooper, right?

[FG167]

Originally Posted by Liesje

Um, I train with them ^ (or used to, *sniff*)

I complain on a FREQUENT basis how much I miss you

It was pretty funny that we trained/traveled together so often that when Jason/I moved, everyone thought you were moving with us! You know you are still always welcome

Originally Posted by Tim Connell

We train together constantly. (OB, bitework, and tracking). The key is always having a plan, and that alleviates any communication difficulties in the midst of a training session.

We find that we video a lot of our training, and that can go a long way toward showing the other person what happened during a session, and avoiding any sort of communication breakdown.

Agreed! It took a few bickering (ok a lot, but we kind of enjoy bickering ) training sessions before we started doing this. Now that we work together, we've learned the give and take of advice/training when we handle the same dogs. Prior to that, we had "his" and "her" dogs and the handler had the final say. That works well for our personal dogs and the sharing works fine with work dogs. So far, so good

Originally Posted by phgsd

He always comes to trials and shows and anything dog-related...whether it's 6 hours or 20 minutes away. He feeds the dogs about half the time, and he lets them out if he's home and I'm not.

He often comes out for my herding lessons - he takes pics, videos, just enjoys being out there. He will do some helper work for me in the backyard, he knows the basics.

Since we are now training dogs for a living, this has become more of our relationship. I train a LOT more often than Jason does these days (I have a much more extreme, hard to handle dog now than he does), and he is always there and supportive. However, this weekend he is trialing and I am going each day, all day to support him. Pics/videos are the best!

Originally Posted by Jag

You're right, if she doesn't go to the club, she shouldn't go to trials probably.

This is the key. We regularly train/trial together so the dogs all are used to seeing the other one outside of the ring or whatever. They're just not interested.

[lilLostduckie]

I am very interested in teaching my pup the sport, and have been in contact with my local club. My hubby and I are headed to view a training session later this week or next. I am the one primarily home with Willa, as his work has him traveling 3-4 days/week. That being said, I do all of her training. He gets annoyed when she listens to me and not him, though we are working him forming a bond with her when he is home.

His main concern was him playfully smacking me and her lunging at him. I am really hoping that he will agree to take an active part of her training and come out to the club with me often.

[Vinnie]

It’s funny but when I first made the decision that I was going to train a dog for SchH competition my husband really didn’t want anything to do with it. He had trained hunting dogs and that was more his interest. After visiting training with me a few times he became almost more interested in SchH than I was. (And I’d have to say he might be better than I am – jury is still out on that.)

My husband & I train together. In fact, I think it’s a huge benefit to have someone at home that can help me train. We do talk prior to working with each dog and tell each other what we’re working on, issues we’re having and what we want to accomplish, etc. I’m sure it helps that he is a few steps ahead of me in training. I’m much less likely to argue and better at listening to him when I’ve seen that he has successfully trained a step I’m working on currently.

When we’re at “club” we’re both there to learn so we really don’t argue or bicker with each other there. At club we’re spending our time learning from someone else (the Training Director). We each have our own individual time with the TD and he shows/teaches us things relative to the individual dog we’re working. We’ll then bring what we learned home and incorporate that in our home training sessions. It’s great because at this point we’re at different places in our training and training different dogs that need different things. We each have different knowledge to share with each other.

[CainGSD]

My late husband had only a passing interest in the dogs and training. His biggest complaint was that none of the SchH dogs had "house" manners. LOL they do have passable manners just not perfect.

I currently train with two different couples, both the women take the leads. One set the husband is an accomplished decoy but defers to his wife for the finer details of the total training package.

I am currently training with a good friend who also decoys. We often bang heads but will also listen to the other person who can see and spot issues while we are working. It is nice to have great working relationship with someone who is as committed to the training as I am.

[Catu]

Originally Posted by lilLostduckie

His main concern was him playfully smacking me and her lunging at him. I am really hoping that he will agree to take an active part of her training and come out to the club with me often.

The best dates I've had are with dog people, maybe because I'm a bit OCD when it comes to dogs but I can't imagine "sharing" a dog with anyone. All couples I know that work together, each has his/her own dog. My best friends are two couples and both have the same problem... when one take the leash of the dog the other was working usually someone gets offended.